What is DRAMA? Drama comes from Greek words meaning "to do" or "to act.

" A play is a story acted out. It shows people going through some eventful period in their lives, seriously or humorously. The speech and action of a play recreate the flow of human life. A play comes fully to life only on the stage. On the stage it combines many arts those of the author, director, actor, designer, and others. Dramatic performance involves an intricate process of rehearsal based upon imagery inherent in the dramatic text. A playwright first invents a drama out of mental imagery. The dramatic text presents the drama as a range of verbal imagery. The language of drama can range between great extremes: on the one hand, an intensely theatrical and ritualistic manner; and on the other, an almost exact reproduction of real life. A dramatic monologue is a type of lyrical poem or narrative piece that has a person speaking to a select listener and revealing his character in a dramatic situation

Different Types of Drama

By: Jenney Cheever You'll discover many types of drama when studying drama and theater. The symbol of drama, the laughing and weeping masks, represent the two main types of drama, comedy and tragedy. Within those categories lie the many forms of drama that entertain people today. Comedy When we talk about comedy, we usually refer to plays that are light in tone, and that typically have happy endings. The intent of a comedic play is to make the audience laugh. In modern theater, there are many different styles of comedy, ranging from realistic stories, where the humor is derived from real-life situations, to outrageous slapstick humor. Tragedy Tragedy is one of the oldest forms of drama; however, its meaning has changed since the earliest days of staged plays. In ancient times, a tragedy was often an historical dramas featuring the downfall of a great man. In modern

theater, the definition is a bit looser. Tragedy usually involves serious subject matter and the death of one or more main characters. These plays rarely have a happy ending. Farce Farce is a sub-category of comedy, characterized by greatly exaggerated characters and situations. Characters tend to be one-dimensional and often follow stereotypical behavior. Farces typically involve mistaken identities, lots of physical comedy and outrageous plot twists. Melodrama Melodrama is another type of exaggerated drama. As in farce, the characters tend to be simplified and onedimensional. The formulaic storyline of the classic melodrama typically involves a villain a heroine, and a hero who must rescue the heroine from the villain. Musical In musical theater, the story is told not only through dialogue and acting but through music and dance. Musicals are often comedic, although many do involve serious subject matter. Most involve a large cast and lavish sets and costumes. As a student of drama it is important to be able recognize these different types of drama. Be aware that in modern theater, the lines between these types of drama are often quite blurred, with elements of comedy, drama and tragedy residing in the same play.

History of Drama The magic of drama is more than the representation of fiction via performance. The term literally means 'action' in Greek. The thought sprung from the need for entertainment and recreation. Ads by Google Beijing History Up to 75% off Beijing Hotels. Read Reviews. Book & Get Cash Back!

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A drama is ideally enacted in a theater, open or closed, and the performances are by actors, live, before an audience that either sits around or before the stage. A single drama is a collaborative effort. The cumulative efforts are pooled for the various modes of production, flow of the text and research in the form of literature adopted. This form of entertainment has not lost its patronage or vigor and continues to remain popular, despite all the technology involved in a film-making. The history of drama goes back ages and to various cultures. The earliest tragedies, comedies and romance were real masterpieces. They were represented as genres of poetry and the dramatic mode was interspersed with epic lyrics. The first ever work on theory in drama and dramatics was Aristotle's Poetics, published in 335 BCE. There are different aspects of the art that make it popular with distinct audiences. Classical music and dance are integral parts of drama, while the opera involves only singing. There are musicals that have dialog and songs within regular intervals. Melodramas offer the audience regular accompaniment by musical instruments.

Athenian Drama

Athenian drama or Western drama was originated in Greece. The city-state of Athens is credited with the production of tragedy, comedy, and satyr. Drama in Athens was institutionalized through competitions. The Greeks came up with the idea of an actor who speaks and impersonates. The main lead was expected to deliver dialog while interacting with the chorus. This form of drama involved non-dramatic poetry and complete texts. The Persians, by Aeschylus, is a historical tragedy that is also the oldest surviving drama.

Roman Drama

Early Roman theater was not only more varied than Greek drama, but also more extensive. Initially, they were sophisticated works of Roman literature, tragedies and comedies. In the 2nd century BCE, drama was part and parcel of the Roman culture. There was a writers' guild who delivered dialog and text for even plays that were set on street corners and crossings. They contributed to a variety of

poetic forms and complex plots. The bifurcation of the production work thus led to the enaction of double-plots, involving the complexity of human behavior.

Medieval Drama

Medieval drama basically involved religious enactment. These plays were enacted within the premises of the cathedrals. They were usually miracle and mystery plays. They focused on propagating morality with the help of specially interspersed interludes. Many of the plays were then written in verse. Ben Jonson and Christopher Marlowe were prominent playwrights of this era. The plays highlighted past kings and Tudor monarchy.

Modern Drama

Modern drama is the result of innovative contributions, like the roles of imitators. Modernist drama is realist and has scope for experimentation and social critique.Important playwrights of Modern drama include Anton Chekhov, Maurice Maeterlinck, George Bernard Shaw and Arthur Miller, among many.

Other Shades of Dramatics

While Indian drama initially involved dramatic episodes, it evolved to include human concerns. The earliest form of theory on drama is the Natya Shastra by Bharata. Chinese theater has stuck by the popular opera from Beijing. Japanese drama developed only in the 15th century. The musical instruments and techniques were handed down generations by word of mouth. Drama is one of the types of literature that has gained popularity during the years. Among the various forms of drama, Western opera grew and thrived during the Renaissance in Italy. Music and theater were combined. Pantomimes told of fables. In a pantomime, there is always a lesson to be learned, as the hero emerges victorious.

The difference between theater and theatre is primarily one of spelling semantics. Speakers of British English are taught to use theatre, while speakers of American English usually use theater. The -re and -er difference is common to many other words in British and American English, like sabre/saber, center/centre, and so forth. Like many words which are spelled differently in British and American English, theater and theatre are sometimes used interchangeably, especially in America; the spelling theatre is more common in the American Northeast. In some groups in the theatrical community in the US, people differentiate between live performances at a theatre and films displayed in a movie theater. Others choose to use theatre to refer to the performing art, while a building is a theater. These distinctions are not made by all writers, however, and there is no consistent rule for such usage. Usually people pick one spelling and stick with it. Linguists often point to the tangled differences between theater and theatre to illustrate the shifts which the English language has undergone over the centuries. Studies on historical usage of English in America and in Britain seem to suggest that spoken American English is actually closer to the King's English spoken when America was first colonized, according to Bill Bryson in Made In America, an exhaustive survey of American English published in 1994, and the -re and -er is only one among many subtle differences between written English in Britain and the United States.